the dream (Kerala version)

I write you from a houseboat.  Yesterday and the night before I slept at my friend's aunt/cousin's resort-hotel in Fort Kochi in Kerala which was literally on the water and full of local antiques and huge trees and plants and a restaurant that was the best food so far.  And I have eaten exclusively at restaurants for the past three weeks, so that's a big deal!

Ok, so in case you'd like to know my ideal day:  Yesterday I started out watching my breakfast being made--I figured what the heck, I might as well ask for some cooking lessons, and they let me in the kitchen and I even got to "help" make some appum, this fluffy delicious coconut pancake.  Then I rented a bike and rode around the sweet little beach/shore town of Fort Kochi, which is full of huge old churches, some cool graveyards, and lots of little market stores.  I didn't buy a thing because the idea of bargaining was just too much (there was a flea market in Goa and I was overwhelmed).  I found a bookstore and got a book called "Jesus Lived in India" that I took back to the hotel and read.  Then I watched them make my lunch of squid pepper garlic, aubergines and yogurt, local vegetable-coconut stuff, and chapatis (wheat bread circles that get pufftastic over a hot hot stove).  Then I read.  Then I got an ayurvedic (local homeopathy stuff) facial and full body massage.  Then I died and went to heaven.

I had to return the bike this morning after a spin to see the Dutch cemetery.  Fort Kochi is pretty historical, lots of populations have lived here, including but not limited to the Portuguese, Dutch, Jews, and Malayalam (palindrome!  do you see that??).  Then we checked out of heavenly hotel, but we boarded a houseboat with my friend's roommate, so it was ok.  Houseboat tours are what the tourists do in the Kerala backwaters--it's gorgeous!  We're next to very narrow strips of land between rice paddies and open brackish water.  The rainy season is really here--we hit a monster storm.  China crashed!  Tables slid!  Then they served us tea.

Til next time...